Deceiving Ourselves About Self-Deception

Deceiving Ourselves About Self-Deception

Deceiving Ourselves About Self-Deception

Were we just the Darwinian adaptive survival/reproduction machines Von Hippel & Trivers invoke to explain us, the self-deception problem would not only be simpler but non-existent. Why would unconscious robots bother to misinform themselves so as to misinform others more effectively? But as we are indeed conscious rather than unconscious robots, the problem is explaining the causal role of consciousness itself, not just its supererogatory tendency to misinform itself so as to misinform (or perform) better.

Abstract

Were we just the Darwinian adaptive survival/reproduction machines Von Hippel & Trivers invoke to explain us, the self-deception problem would not only be simpler but non-existent. Why would unconscious robots bother to misinform themselves so as to misinform others more effectively? But as we are indeed conscious rather than unconscious robots, the problem is explaining the causal role of consciousness itself, not just its supererogatory tendency to misinform itself so as to misinform (or perform) better.